The present invention relates to a photographic printer, and more particularly to a photographic printer having a photometric device for measuring the density of an image to be printed and/or an imaging device for displaying the image on a monitor.
In order to control print exposure and color balance, and/or to inspect an image to be printed, all or a part of the light passing through the image recorded on a photographic film such as a color negative film usually is detected by at least a sensor, before being used for exposing a photosensitive material such as color photographic paper. To direct light toward the sensor, it is known to use a movable mirror having a total reflecting surface, and to move the mirror into and out of the light path.
However, the mirror must be inserted into and removed from the printing light path before printing each frame. Therefore, it is hard to print quickly, and it is difficult to position the mirror very accurately. In addition, in an inverted type of photographic printer in which the photographic film is placed in the lower portion and the photographic paper is placed in the upper portion, the mirror may disturb the handling of the photographic film because the mirror is placed near to and over a film carrier for the photographic film.
It also is known to dispose a beam splitter in stationary fashion in a printing light path. The beam splitter reflects part of the light passing through the photographic film and directs it toward the sensor. Although such a beam splitter makes it possible to make prints quickly, the beam splitter can make it inconvenient to exchange lenses, though it is necessary to use a specific lens according to frame size or print type. For example, when printing a Brownie film, a specific lens therefor is desirable: to make a package print, that is, a print bearing more than one image of the same subject, a so called lens cluster is indispensable.
Furthermore, in order to make a print of sufficiently high quality, it is necessary to accommodate not only the lens but also the beam splitter. However, for this purpose, conventional lenses are not applicable, and it is necessary to design new lenses especially therefor. Although it may be possible to use a single common beam splitter for all kinds of lenses, such a common beam splitter will be very large in size and therefore will be costly, and will remarkably lower the efficiency in printing 135 films. Because a 135 film is the most popular film, such a construction is not preferable.